FALL YELLOW

 

Fall has definitely arrived. The trees are turning rapidly to bright red and yellow. This picture of intense yellow coloured ragweed reminds me of some of Turner’s great landscape paintings.

FALL COLOURS

 

No black and white image this time, but a Fall colour image. Yes the trees starting their annual colour festival. Actually this picture was taken a few years ago when our friend Gerry took John, Dan and  myself on a little trip on the South River to take some pictures. The colours were spectacular. Sitting in the back of the boat I took a series of images of the boat’s wake which turned into some very nice abstract photo “paintings”.

CLOUDS AND WAVES, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Last Tuesday morning my young grandson Ewan invited me to go and take some pictures together. Of course I agreed and both of us went down to the lake. It was a gorgeous sunny day. It was the beginning of a great little photo trip and Ewan was enjoying himself taking pictures together with his grandfather. Both of us are looking forward to go on many future photo trips.

TEMBEC PAPER MILL, TIMISKAMING, PQ

 

This photo was made during a September trip to the village of Timiskaming in Quebec. It was a very early trip but well worth getting out of bed early. When my friend Dan and I arrived at the town the sun was just rising and the fog started to lift from the River. The clouds combined with the smoke from the mill made for very dramatic landscapes. Actually I think in another two weeks it might be worth another early morning visit.

SUBWAY STATION, NEW YORK

 Again an old image but this is a picture from my New York portfolio. Revisiting your older picture is a very interesting journey because you see the image from a new perspective. The black and white interpretation is a much more abstract view than the original colour version.

QUEBEC CITY, PQ

 

Still not traveling far, so I am simply traveling through my files. When visiting Quebec City I was intrigued by this simple note scribbled on a wall in the old city. Looking at it again I have to wonder what is the story behind this note. You can feel the anguish and perhaps anger expressed by this simple message. A simple image but the words give this picture a powerful meaning. 

TREE SKELETON, RESTOULE PROVINCIAL PARK

Every year we go for a picnic with our friends Bob and Pat. So yesterday we decided to go to the Restoule Provincial Park. We found an empty picnic table next to the river where we enjoyed a wonderful outdoor lunch. 

Right across the water I noticed this dead tree, which was almost bleached white. The background was a dense pattern of very green trees, which obscured the shape of the old tree. My first idea was to turn the final picture into a pure monochrome image and yes, I did like the result but then started to add a duo tone to the image and again I enjoyed the final picture, which I decided to post.

OUR GARDEN

 

Our garden or actually I should say, my wife’s garden, because after all it is her beautiful creation. I simply get the enjoyment out of her hard work. The garden also inspires me in making my photographs. This image is a interpretation of the evening view just when darkness gives this mysterious view of the textures of the different plants and the light dissolving into the darkness of the forest.

SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

Last Friday, our first photo trip since lockdown. What a great day. We, Gerry, john and myself decide to drive to South River and we had a wonderful time. Good discussions on a wide variety of topics, a great lunch and above all some fine picture taking. I stil like working in black and white.
 This time I added a sepia tone to this image, which I think  strengthens the visual impact of this landscape.

MAINSTREET, NORTH BAY 1974

 

Now this is a trip back in time. This morning I came across some old negatives I took in the seventies. Quite a trip through memory lane.  Downtown  North Bay had three movie theatres, Mainstreet was the primary shopping centre until the new malls opened. That was the end of a lively downtown. Of course there are still some great stores on Mainstreet but it is a far cry from the busy shopping crowds you would see on Saturdays in the seventies when we just arrived in the city.

KITCHEN, PAUL REVERE HOUSE, BOSTON

 

I took this picture a few years ago when visiting the Paul Revere house in Boston. It is a picture reflecting the period. The warm tone of the image accentuates the antiquity of the house and its furnishings. It is worth visiting this 18th century building , which contrasts with the modern architecture of downtown Boston.

WALKING

 

It has been quite some time since my last posting. But I had some technical problems with my computer. Eventually I solved the problems and gained some more knowledge in computer repair. Today’s posting is an image I took this morning when going for a walk along the waterfront. It was fun to see the various creations people made along the water’s edge. I particular enjoyed this sculpture, which appeared ready to cross the lake.

DRIFTWOOD, BASIN HEAD, PEI

 A gray, wet day along the beach in Basin Head. I came upon this piece of driftwood which had texture but its spidery shape resulted in an image with impact. I scanned  the original colour negative in monochrome, which made for an image with a stronger emotional impact. Finally I always add grain to my final pictures, because to me grain  defines the photographic image.

OLD GLOVE

 

Walking around the Maritime beaches and shoreline, you will find quite a few discarded rubber gloves. I photographed this old glove somewhere in New Brunswick. In this image I like the different textures, which work well with the intriguing shape of the glove. As I mentioned in my last posting, I am interested in the process of duotoning. The overall blue tone adds to the visual impact of this composition.

BASIN HEAD FISHERIES MUSEUM, PEI

 

Recently I rediscovered a neglected book hidden on my bookshelves. The title of the book is From Darkroom to Digital by the British photographer and writer Eddie Ephraums. While the photography software has greatly improved since this book was published, I still think that the Eddie’s ideas about traditional black and white photography versus digital are still relevant. I agree with him that the computer has greatly enlarged the technical possibilities for black and white photography. I especially got interested in his ideas about toning and I have been experimenting with duotoning photographs. It is one aspect I am exploring and enjoying. 

CUMBERLAND HERITAGE VILLAGE MUSEUM, ONTARIO

 

Again a picture from my files. This time an image from the station master’s office of the old Vars railway station. This old station was moved to the open air heritage museum in Cumberland. Old railway stations remind me of the times when the main means of transportation for the small towns in the rural and especially the communities in the North was the train. The irony is that the same small towns have lost, with the exception of the private car, their various forms of travel. The train has been gone, now airlines and busses have closed their various routes. The only bus company here in North Eastern Ontario is the Ontario Northlander. Al in all a very sad situation,

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Yesterday was the first time, after many weeks, that I went on a small photo excursion around the city. I came across this view of the old Dionne Quints home which was moved to downtown North Bay. I particularly liked the strange contrast between the old homestead and new construction behind it. 

SPRING FLOWERS, TROUT LILY

 

Spring has definitely arrived here in Northern Ontario. The last few days have been exceptionally warm for April. So to celebrate Spring I scanned several older negatives of wild flowers, which I took on my nature walks along my favourite nature trails. The film I used was either Kodak or Agfa colour negative film. I prefer negative film because it allowed me to make colour prints. I always enjoyed working in the darkroom and now I continue making prints digitally of course. 

THAT’S HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN

We are living through dark and anxious times but looking through my files I came across this picture, which I took one Summer visiting Baie Saint Paul in Quebec. I think it is an image, which reflects the words from the poem Anthem by Leonard Cohen .

“There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.”

STORMY LAKE, ONTARIO

I certainly have procrastinated lately but here anew posting of an old picture I took many years ago of boats on the shore of Stormy Lake in the provincial park in Restoule, Ontario. However I am certain that if you would go to the park, you could photograph an almost identical scene. It is still a very peaceful, quiet 

place with many photographic opportunities. When I took this picture it was a very nice early sunny Spring day. After scanning the negatives I did not find the picture visually very interesting. So using photoshop an onOne I added drama by changing it to a night scene. This added drama to an otherwise rather boring image.
 

DUCHESNAY FALLS, NORTH BAY

 

We are still in lockdown here in North Bay, so I am still exploring my negatives files. It is a voyage of nostalgic memories. When I scanned this negative I wondered why I never printed this image. It is one of many I took on my regular excursions to Duchesnay Falls. It is close to my home and is one of my favourite photo spots. I still like it but , getting on in age, makes it more difficult for me to walk the trails and clambering the rocks.

FOR DAVID BROWN

Another image from my negative collection. I dedicated this image to David Brown, a passionate photographer and , just like me and I am certain many other photo artists , miss working in the darkroom. A unique place to work quietly on creating your images. Of course we follow the same processes while working digitally but we miss the unique intimacy of working in an almost dark environment experiencing the magic of seeing the image appear in the developer tray. 

WINTER LANDSCAPE, SUDBURY

 

Another image from my old files. I took this picture on a little photo excursion to the Sudbury area before the the great landscape restoration. Before the changes the area around Sudbury was quite barren. Actually it looked quite grim and desolate. It is amazing how, since the nineteen eighties, the landscape has been transformed to the point that it will be difficult to find areas as this one I photographed in the mid seventies. This truly is a historic image. 

SNOW LANDSCAPE WITH ABANDONED HOUSE

 Another rediscovered pictures. This time an old house I photographed a few times. The old elm trees are all gone and actually so is the house. I am at an age now where you realize that your camera was really the magic memory box. Every day I discover new forgotten memories. After scanning in these old negatives to can re-interpret these images again.

MINE SITE, PICKLE LAKE, ONTARIO

 

We are under stay-at-home order, which is a good time to search my files for hidden gems. I scanned this negative, which I took many years ago on a trip to Pickle Lake in North Western Ontario. We were driving along a dirt road near a large copper mine. I guess what attracted me was the beautiful cloudy sky contrasting with the textures of the rocks and dirt along the road. The film I used was one of my favourite films Ilford HP5. I still miss working in the darkroom. If you wonder about ofthe height of  this”mountain” well, it was only about 3 meters high.

MINIMALISM, LAKE NIPISSING

 

This image is a reflection of our unusual time of isolation. It reminds me of the minimalist art of the nineteen sixties. It shows a view of just basic elements of rectangles and strong basic colour contrasting with the texture of the railing at the government dock here in North Bay. 

FIREFIGHTER’S HELMET

 

It is quite a lot of fun looking through old files and discovering negatives which I simply forgot about. This negative is quite a few decades old. Actually I took this picture when we just arrived in Canada and I worked for a photographer in Toronto, who did a lot of work for the provincial and federal government. So one morning,on my way to the subway, I passed some firetrucks parked outside an office building. The firemen were busy rolling out the hoses, so of course being a curious photographer I had to take some pictures of course.  I was intrigued by this helmet . You don’t see these anymore and I am certain that they are quite valuable . Thiswas shot using Kodak Trix developed in Agfa Rodinal.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Choosing negatives from my files, remind me of a famous quote by Ansel Adams, “the negative is the score and the image is the performance”. I have to agree with his analogy with music. Each time you make a print of a specific negative you make some subtle and sometimes of course major changes in the interpretation of the negative. A good example is this print, which is made from a old negative but is a very different interpretation from earlier prints. 

LIGHT BEFORE COLOUR

 

The British painter J.W. M. Turner once said light came before colourand as a photographer I have to agree with that statement. Turner of course was a master in painting light and that is one of the reasons I so admire his work. This image is quite old. I made this picture sometimes in the seventees but , because I did not write it down, I simply can’t remember where I took the picture. During this period of isolation and actually compltete lockdown, I gigured this is an excellent time to once again go through my old negatives and start scanning some of them.I came across this negative made with my old twinlens Roleiflex and processed it on my computer. I never printed it before and looking at the result I wonder why I never printed it. It is a wonderful image.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, BONFIELD,ONTARIO

Another picture from yesterday’s photo excursion. Yes it was quite cold with the temperature around -15 C However the sun just appeared above the horizon, colouring the Winter landscape in a beautiful golden hue. Of course it did not add to us feeling warmer but it definitely created a very romantic atmosphere, giving us quite a few nice images.

 

BACK LIGHTING

 What a beautiful Winter day we had. So John, Gerry and I left early on a photo trip. Of course we could not let this day go by without taking photographs. One of the places we visited was an abandoned saw mill. John and I had been there before but of course you always see something new. My first series of pictures were of a large backlit group of old loading facilities. The very pronounced shadows and large shapes made me think of the traditional black and white images by photographers like Edward Weston, Charles Sheeler and the German photographer Albert Renger Patzsch.

WINTER, THE SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

 

As I promised, I will be posting more pictures this year. While we are still in some form lockdown, I look at this time as a good period for reflection. My extensive photo archive is simply a treasury of forgotten images like this view of the South River, which I took two years ago. Using a large matt around the image gives it a new visual perspective. 

BARN, STURGEON FALLS

 

Revisiting some of the old sites I have photographed over the years, you see the process of time. Like this barn, which is slowly deteriorating and probably wil be gone in a few years or maybe has collapsed already  since my last visit. It still has character with its strong textures and patterns.

QUILTED ICE HUT, LAKE NIPISSING

 

When visiting the North Bay art winterfest I took a picture of this quilted ice hut on Lake Nipissing. It certainly is a good picture for these dark times when all of us are living in isolation because of the dreaded  covid 19. But I am certain that this year will hopefully bring us a semblance of normal life again. So lets keep our fingers crossed.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Winter has definitely arrived  here in North Bay and surrounding areas. Many parts of Ontario did not or hardly received any snow. Very unusual for this time of the season. I took this picture at the end of the popular cranberry trail in Callander. A black and white version of this landscape is also quite strong. However the colour version was my final choice In a future posting I might use the monochrome version.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Christmas Eve and the right time to post a my Christmas image. I chose this image of one of my most favourite subjects, an old maple tree, which I have photographed since the early seventies. So here is my visual 

AGGREGATE PIT, NORTH BAY

 

A few years ago I visited an aggregate business  not far from my home. In the Winter of course, the only landscape is quite stark . everything blanketed in snow contrasting with the exposed, strongly textured gravel and sand. It is a great place to photograph because of the stark simplicity of the landscape. White and black interspersed with beautiful textures and patterns. 

WINTER LANDSCAPE, BLACK AND WHITE

 

It is the busy time before Christmas.Last week I designed and mailed our Christmas card which took up some time, but all the cards have been sent. So on Saturday my friend Gerry invited our friend John and me to go on a little photo safari. The weather forecast predicted a nice sunny day but of course it was quite overcast. Not a great problem because I overcast skies in the Winter. It makes for nice moody Winter shots with strong graphic images. We had a great day visiting some of our favourite spots. I decided to concentrate on black and white pictures. So here one example of that trip.  I hope you like it.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, COLOUR

 So here is the promised colour interpretation. Rob gave the black and white image 10 out of 10, so I am interested which picture he prefers. I used the word interpretation because I used a variety of filters and adjustments to create the Winter mood I was looking for. The enormous changes in the various photo adjustment programs gives me the same freedom as painters have to create the image to your own artistic interpretation.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, POWASSAN, ONTARIO

 

Again a. picture I took a few years ago in the Powassan area. It was a difficult decision which image to choose, so I decided to publish both interpretations. Today I start with the monochrome image, tomorrow the colour interpretation. Each image reflects the Winter season and both show a different aspect of the cold season. I feel that this image reflects a strong graphic meaning of the Winter season. But lets look at the colour picture and maybe this will decide my view of which picture is the one with the most impact.

DRAMATIC SKY, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Last Friday afternoon I made a visit at one of my local beaches here in North Bay. It was a pretty somber grey Fall day. But I was lucky because just when I arrived the sky started to open up at the horizon. Of course that was all the change I saw but it made for a pretty simple but dramatic picture, which, after I turned this simple landscape into a black and white image, became quite a visually impressive image.

FIRST SIGNS OF WINTER

 

This photograph was quite a challenge for me. The original is an old and I mean old, Agfa  slide. This type of film has a pretty limited life span. The colour was faded and showed discolouring on the edges. So, after scanning, I decided to turn the image into a monochrome picture and I am quite happy with the result. I took this picture early on a cold November morning and I like dark moody quality. Then I made some rather subtle changes with a LUT filter, which you can create yourself, to enhance the overal tone of the final image.

OLD BOOTS

 

About time to post another image. Again I have been rummaging through my files and liked this picture of old boots at one of my favourite places to visit the Powassan Treasure Mill. Its a fun place to take pictures.

The boots were black with the centre pair brown. So I turned the original colour image into a monochrome picture and then simply masked out the brown boots. It just added a contrast to this richly textured image.

 

COMPOSITION WITH COW PORTRAIT

 One of the places I visit, is a famous local house which is decorated  with all kind of found and collected junk. But lately it does not look that interesting any more. Everything looks neglected and deteriorated. Still, I did take a few pictures and liked this painting of a cow surrounded by some typical Canadian objects like old snowshoes, skates and hockey sticks. Again I prefer the monochromatic interpretation.

FOUR BRICKS

 

Composition with four bricks. The original was in colour but, after some study, I decided to turn the image into a monochromatic picture. Then I brought back the colour in the bricks to make them prominent in the composition and I liked the result. It definitely made the image visually stronger.

REEDS AND REFLEXIONS

 Another black and white image, which I took a few years ago when taking pictures around Munster, Ontario. It is a simple subject of reeds and its reflexion in water. I like the contrast between the detailed textured reed contrasted by the strong black and white reflexions, which look like a Japanese ink drawing.

LAKE NIPISSING, CLOUDS AND WAVE

 

Visited my favourite beach today. It was simply a glorious fall day. But instead of creating a colour interpretation of the landscape, I decided to render the scene into black and white. The reason, simple I liked the similarity between the clouds and the wave at the bottom. Black and white made the two elements more dominant in this composition.

FALL REFLECTIONS

A beautiful Fall day yesterday. We went for a walk along some trails, where we took pictures along a small creek. My first interest in running water are reflections and textures. I know what I can expect but of course the results are quite new and can be spectacular. The final image looks closer to an abstract painting rather than a straight photograph. Working with the various images on the computer is exciting because you manipulating the original file you can  see the image turn into final result you had in mind in the first place.

AUTUMN LEAVES

 

Just listening to Nat King Cole singing Autumn Leaves. I still love his interpretation of this popular song.

SoI am posting my visual interpretation. I like the painterly effect of this Fall image.

FALL LANDSCAPE

 

On the weekend I took a walk around the maple bush on the old Thorn’s farm property on our street. The house is gone but the old maple trees in the back of the property are still there for the time being. It’s a pity but I expect that soon we will see this nice area transform into some form of new development. So just in time to take some nice romantic Fall landscapes.